Broadcast News

Wise Buddah Studios Gets SNS EVO Storage

Audio post-production facility Wise Buddah Studios has announced an upgrade of its storage requirements to an EVO Shared Storage Server from Studio Network Solutions.

The EVO is part of a plan of upgrades that has been in motion for the last few years with Scrub, the post-focused subsidiary of HHB Communications Ltd.

Since the upgrade, Wise Buddah Studios has worked on a number of TV projects including the documentary Ian Brady: 50 Years Behind Bars for Channel 5, mini-series The Private Lives of the Tudors for UKTV and Take That: These Days on Tour for BBC One. On the advertising side, they have continued to work with brands such as Carlsberg, Barclays Premier League, Sainsbury's and Macmillan.

Wise Buddah Studios has a long history of working with SNS, and turned to one of its SAN solutions, globalSAN X-16, approximately seven years ago. Wise Buddah Studios upgraded to EVO to take advantage of Pro Tools being able run on a NAS solution in a shared environment, as well as to increase its storage capacity.

Working on a NAS solution also helps Wise Buddah Studios to take any human error out of its backup system, where previously files had to be copied to shared volumes. The company has a working volume, nearline storage and also archives to LTO tape, ensuring that clients' files are safe and secure at all times.

EVO is now the heart of all projects, so mixers and engineers are able to pick up work in any room quickly and efficiently. Every team is able to access EVO, and the transfer and bookings teams use the ShareBrowser file manager from SNS to send files directly to clients from designated delivery folders, negating the need for files to be copied to other volumes internally before being sent on.

The 16-bay EVO configuration enables room for expansion. Wise Buddah Studios is only using eight bays at the present time, so other parts of the company such as its Content and Jingles divisions could use the EVO in the future.

Jonathan Last is Director of Audio, a dubbing mixer and a sound engineer. Last runs the studios, manages the engineers and looks after the technology side of the facility, including upgrades and room builds etc.

"We've worked with Scrub for years. They know our systems and know the way we work, and have always been highly responsive when it came to giving us a particular specification. It's a long-standing relationship which works for all parties," Mr Last said.

Wise Buddah Studios is a five-room facility focusing mainly on advertising and television, including recording voiceovers, mixing and sound design in stereo and 5.1. All studios are running Pro Tools 12 with HDX rigs.